I absolutely loved this one from The British Library Crime Classics series - it speaks directly to several of my interests and turned out to be an excellent mystery with really delightful characters - so all boxes duly ticked.
As a bonus, I learnt quite a bit about the architect Decimus Burton (I suppose if you have 10 children it's acceptable to start numbering them?). there were so many real artists names being thrown about that despite not initially believing in Decimus I looked him up, and not only real but prolific and important. The way the building feels like a living character in this book is very much one of its charms.
That the victim is done to death by an outsize Canova bust of an extremely unattractive Earl is another winning point. The building and victim belong to the Ministry of Fine Arts, the Minister for Fine Arts is Humphry David and he's a delightful character too - one who does not believe in the use of his department or the validity of much of the art it holds.
The mystery and its solution are fun as well as clever, but I'd suggest the best reason to read this is for its gentle arguments about modern art which run through the whole plot. There are characters who are pretentious about it; and ignorant in equal measure. Characters who admit they don't understand it but strive to, and characters who come to see something where previously they had not. It's an intelligent and thoughtful process that reveals an ingenious scam, enjoys a few jokes, and feels remarkably timeless.
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